Week 1 DietBet Weigh In–Cauliflower Pizza Crust

What the DietBet does for me is make me think twice before putting anything in my mouth.  Literally.  I guess over time I don’t realize how many licks and tastes I have during a particular day and they add up.  I’d find myself breaking off a piece of cheese if I went to the fridge.  Think about eating half a cookie that comes with our office supplies while brewing a pot of coffee at work.  And each time I told myself “that’s not going to win you the money!”  You see, the pot on Brooke’s DietBet is $16,000!

I lost three pounds this week!  It helped that I ditched my wine for water, a couple days got to or close to 20,000 steps and just was mindful of all the licks and tastes.  And I ate some good food!

That doesn’t look like grilled chicken, brown rice and broccoli day in and day out as I see some food planners eat.  But herein lies the problem – week 2!  I tend to get complacent, not be as mindful as I was during week one so I am determined to have a loss after week 2.  But I have my meal plan laid out for the week, have my workout clothes all washed and ready to go – it’s going to be a good week!  I did a great grocery shop too – even with buying steak, shrimp, ground beef, and chicken breasts, I only spent $66 for the week on food – well, it helped that I had a 20% coupon!

I am pissed though because when I took this picture I realized she scanned two containers of egg whites, and I only bought one.  Oh well, at least I got $16.35 off my bill! 

We had a great night out for Jacob’s birthday.  I ended up hitting the gym before dinner since I had the time and so that I could eat my way in beef!  And because I am short, I am still in the obese category, but now with my 3 pound weight loss this week, I am only 1.5 points away from being just overweight – woop!

The only person I worried about with the menu was Hannah, since she doesn’t eat meat or fish for that matter.  No worries!  When the server asked what she wanted she said “I’ll take the chopped salad without the hearts of palm and blue cheese and I’ll have the onion rings.”  He stopped for a second and questioned “you want both for your entrée?!”  Maybe she’s the first person to do that!  But she loved them both.  Jacob got the Cowboy ribeye and it looked amazeballs.  Jacob’s Mom and I both got the petite filet, and I got mine with shrimp.

And Mel, I got the Save Me Pinot Noir at your suggestion – so good!  The only sad part of the evening was when he server asked if we’d like to split a bottle of Coppola Claret with our dinner.  I was kind of confused for a second because we hadn’t even ordered drinks yet, when I realized that it was the wine that Tony and I always had when we went there.   They must have looked it up when I made the reservation.  It’s little things like that, that can just stab me out of nowhere and remind me that he’s not here anymore.

Saturday I asked the kids (ahem, young adults living with me!) what they wanted for dinner and they both said deep dish pizza.  I decided to make another stab at a cauliflower pizza crust.   The first and only time I made it was nearly six years ago!  Please forgive the awful photography back then.  I used this recipe, but reduced the cheese down to 2 ounces instead of a cup.  I drained the cooked cauliflower in a strainer in my sink for a good 30 minutes and then pressed all the moisture out of it as I could.  One of the perks of being a food blogger is that you get free stuff – my friends at Cabot Cheese sent me some more cheese – one of which was new to me – smokey bacon!

And I also got these “cow pots” and some seeds with some gardening gloves.  I didn’t see a green thumb though in the box though, so we’ll see how that goes!

I topped my pizza with an ounce of Italian sausage, an ounce of pepperoni, baby spinach and 2 ounces of the smoky bacon shredded on top.  I baked it on my baking steel that had been in the oven while the deep dish pizza cooked.  I got the crust so that I could eat it with my hands instead of a knife and fork – it was delicious!  I ate half of this pizza.

The kids had the deep dish – that buttery crust is to die for!

It was a super cold yesterday – rainy, blustery, with temps not even getting out of the 30s.  It’s almost April – what the hell?!  I went to the gym instead of walking outside, then did my grocery shopping and then of course got Bizzy in my Kitchen.  Hannah requested chicken gyros for later in the week, so I made up another batch of naan bread – this time using a spice I got when we were in Key West – it has lemon and lime zest in it and it’s amazing!

This batch makes 16 naan – each one only 127 calories and 25 grams of carbs.  Perfect for a breakfast panini, or naan pizza.  I am sure in a couple days they will be all gone, because the kids love it.

They actually went out last night to a concert that they have been looking forward to – Circa Survive, Balance and I don’t know what the other band is. 

So I had the house to myself last night which was actually nice.  I prepped the food for the day, repacked my gym bag and just relaxed and watched t.v. before calling it an early night, and made a quick beef and veggie lo mein for dinner.  No real recipe, just tossed some veggies and beef in my Green pan and added some soy sauce, a touch of sesame oil, sriracha and added in some cooked lo mein noodles at the end.

Here’s to Week 2 on the DietBet!  It’s 34 degrees outside, but I have time to squeeze in a 20 minute walk before getting ready for work.  It’s like Brooke says: #WYCWYC – What You Can When You Can – it all adds up!  Make it a great day!